Oldest coin to date 1835

Xraywolf

Silver Member
Feb 28, 2005
3,576
4,362
MI USA
Detector(s) used
Ace 400, AT Pro, equinox 800, Simplex,Vanquish 540
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
1835 wow, boggles my mind.
That was 77 years BEFORE the Titanic was sunk, never thought I'd fine one this old. Previous record for me was 1857. In very good shape, shows slight signs of circulation on the high points but not much. Looked almost silverish when it popped out of the ground, almost had a stroke when I saw the Liberty head. Cleaned up rather nicely, found it in the middle of a street tearout with a Simplex, if not for the tearout it would have been unrecoverable. Sorry if the pics are sideways, seems all forums are different with pics and I haven't posted here in years.
 

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Upvote 52
Great shape. Awesome find
 

Congrats thats a really cool coin your oldest thats great to hear...Keep at that spot could find some more. Funny I thought there was a bug on my lapyop it was your avatar thats hillarious........
 

Dang bug get off my phone! Hehe :) Super cool penny, nice find! Tear outs that produce finds are great
 

Believe you me, I have been hammering the site and I am tempted to say it is now tapped, but I thought it was tapped when I found this - So as long as the construction process and my time/weather permits, I'll keep looking.
I have seen a couple other guys there, chatted with them once I thought they'd resent me being there, probably did but we talked. Next day it looked like a gopher party, unfilled holes everywhere which really irked me ,, Ok its a tearout and you don't have to make it look too pretty but have the decency to kick some dirt back in the hole, some of them they left were big enough to swallow an ankle, sheer laziness.
Little bit of karma though, I found an 1873 IHP right between some of their holes ,, The one guy swung so fast it would have to be a silver dollar on the surface to get a usable signal. Me I'm the opposite, especially since I am just learning the simplex, and 1 thing I learned is when using the new park mode 1, swing nice and slow because yes it is deep seeking but that comes at the expense of recovery speed which is very slow. Swing fast and you'll hear choppy blips if that, but swing slow and you hear juicy beeps, music to the ears !
 

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Believe you me, I have been hammering the site and I am tempted to say it is now tapped, but I thought it was tapped when I found this - So as long as the construction process and my time/weather permits, I'll keep looking.
I have seen a couple other guys there, chatted with them once I thought they'd resent me being there, probably did but we talked. Next day it looked like a gopher party, unfilled holes everywhere which really irked me ,, Ok its a tearout and you don't have to make it look too pretty but have the decency to kick some dirt back in the hole, some of them they left were big enough to swallow an ankle, sheer laziness.
Little bit of karma though, I found an 1873 IHP right between some of their holes ,, The one guy swung so fast it would have to be a silver dollar on the surface to get a usable signal. Me I'm the opposite, especially since I am just learning the simplex, and 1 thing I learned is when using the new park mode 1, swing nice and slow because yes it is deep seeking but that comes at the expense of recovery speed which is very slow. Swing fast and you'll hear choppy blips if that, but swing slow and you hear juicy beeps, music to the ears !

Knowing your machine makes all the difference in the world.

Unfortunately there will always be people who only think of themselves and have no consideration for anyone else. Those idiots, sorry but they really are stupid, are causing more work for the people replacing the street and could get all detectorists banned from searching the tear out. They are not doing themselves or any one else any good by being inconsiderate.

Sorry for the rant, but I have about had it with people who make life harder for the rest of us. Stay safe and keep swingin.
 

Yeah, even if it's just a tearout it's still proper etiquette to fill the holes back in. Jeesh!
Hopefully some more ground gets opened up for you to search!
 

Knowing your machine makes all the difference in the world.

Unfortunately there will always be people who only think of themselves and have no consideration for anyone else. Those idiots, sorry but they really are stupid, are causing more work for the people replacing the street and could get all detectorists banned from searching the tear out. They are not doing themselves or any one else any good by being inconsiderate.

Sorry for the rant, but I have about had it with people who make life harder for the rest of us. Stay safe and keep swingin.

I cannot stand laziness and not filling in your own holes to me is the ultimate example of laziness in both mind and body. It is also arrogant and disrespectful, and that is not the worse of it. Yes its a construction zone - With construction workers. Of course we detect when no work is going on but the guys are there, I am a construction worker myself, a site like that can be hazardous enough without worrying about twisting your ankle in a hole. Not really a residential area but there are a few houses and I have talked to some of the people, they say hi, ever find anything good ect. I talk top them nice and friendly and I think its a matter of time before one of them invites me to detect their property, which I would love to do - If these jokers don't blow my shots first with them thinking I am the one leaving the pits. We all know it, guys like that are a horrible reflection on every one of us, so feel free to rant on about these guys, and I wlll definitely bring the subject up when/if I see them there again which I almost certainly will.
I'm telling ya, the digging is soooo easy there like a dream, 1 shovelful with 1 hand in most areas and you are down 10", that easy - And conversely, very easy to backfill as well, literally takes 2 seconds to do. I even swirl my fill around on top to blend it in, sometimes I end up redigging signals and I can't even tell I dug there until the dirt comes up ultra easy, then I think Ok yeah, I've already been here and thats a pipe down there or something. I don't think many guys here need to hear this they already know, but it needs to be repeated for posterity - When you are out digging, treat it as if it were your own back yard, simple as that. No one would leave holes in their yard, they should not do it anywhere else.
 

I cannot stand laziness and not filling in your own holes to me is the ultimate example of laziness in both mind and body. It is also arrogant and disrespectful, and that is not the worse of it. Yes its a construction zone - With construction workers. Of course we detect when no work is going on but the guys are there, I am a construction worker myself, a site like that can be hazardous enough without worrying about twisting your ankle in a hole. Not really a residential area but there are a few houses and I have talked to some of the people, they say hi, ever find anything good ect. I talk top them nice and friendly and I think its a matter of time before one of them invites me to detect their property, which I would love to do - If these jokers don't blow my shots first with them thinking I am the one leaving the pits. We all know it, guys like that are a horrible reflection on every one of us, so feel free to rant on about these guys, and I wlll definitely bring the subject up when/if I see them there again which I almost certainly will.
I'm telling ya, the digging is soooo easy there like a dream, 1 shovelful with 1 hand in most areas and you are down 10", that easy - And conversely, very easy to backfill as well, literally takes 2 seconds to do. I even swirl my fill around on top to blend it in, sometimes I end up redigging signals and I can't even tell I dug there until the dirt comes up ultra easy, then I think Ok yeah, I've already been here and thats a pipe down there or something. I don't think many guys here need to hear this they already know, but it needs to be repeated for posterity - When you are out digging, treat it as if it were your own back yard, simple as that. No one would leave holes in their yard, they should not do it anywhere else.
100% agreed. I would bring it up too if I saw them again. Not just a matter of principal, but that we have a responsibility to represent the hobby in a good light and not add any negative attention.
I like to think most of us are pretty responsible hunters, but the bad actions of a few can affect us as a whole.

Part of what makes these forums so great, and being a part of them, is all the information provided but also gives a sense of community where we want to do what's best for the whole
 

100% agreed. I would bring it up too if I saw them again. Not just a matter of principal, but that we have a responsibility to represent the hobby in a good light and not add any negative attention.
I like to think most of us are pretty responsible hunters, but the bad actions of a few can affect us as a whole.

Part of what makes these forums so great, and being a part of them, is all the information provided but also gives a sense of community where we want to do what's best for the whole

Can't even imagine the lack of pride it would take to leave an unsightly mess like that, really, its childish. But even an average child, tell them not to do it and tell them why, they will at least eventually understand and listen. These guys know damn well the rules we have, unwritten or not, they just chose to ignore them - The way that guy was swinging like his shaft was on fire I guarantee you, he was thinking hell, I'm not going to fill any holes, takes time, its a construction site doesn't matter, gotta keep moving and find stuff before this other guy [or my partner] gets it ! I bet you also these are the type of guys who would find a gold wedding ring with a full name and go straight to the pawn shop with it.
 

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Very nice find and it's in great shape! I love finding the coppers! They are more plentiful in my area but I'm not sure I've found one that's in as nice condition as that!
 

Very nice cent. Lots of excellent detail still left on there. Congrats. :thumbsup:
 

Thats's a sharp looking coin right there. :thumbsup: Congrats!
 

Thanks for the comments, I have found plenty of rings much more valuable than this but this thing is made out of solid gold as far as I am concerned. There is nothing like the feeling of finding an old coin, liberating it to the ground after decades. I feel an actual connection with whoever lost it so many decades ago. Back then a penny meant something, probably like $5 today, you could buy subsistence with it, and the guy more than likely noticed it was missing and vowed to be more careful with his hard earned money. And there it sat, lost before anyone had ever heard of Abe Lincoln, already decades in the ground when the civil war came and went. Wild west was upon us and Custer made his last stand. The Titanic sunk, WW1, the great depression, WW2 and Korea. We put men on the moon and it still had decades in the ground to go when finally, during a world wide pandemic, the street is tore up for sewer work but it it still 4" down, and some guy ambles along with a metal detector and it sees sunshine and fresh air for the 1st time in over 180 years - A very different time, a very different place.

This was actually found not under what would have been the street but a grassy median between the street and sidewalk and I am thankful for that because most of the coins I have found under the street itself are trashed, a couple I can't even ID type much less date. I found a 1917 Merc that was leeched of color, looked like it went through a drum sander, and I suspect you guys that detect salt water find them in much the same condition. The reason for this I presume is because over the decades, road salt and other contaminants leeches down through fissures and chemically attacks them. This substrate as you can see is sandy, you'd never know it with the grass there but it is. Looks like it actually preserves metal. I estimate they took off around 16" of soil, it was 4" further down still so obviously, no detector around today would have produced any signal for a coin that deep. As it was, the signal was choppy and mixed with iron, which is why I passed it by before, along with the other guys there. Only a slow, steady swing produced a usable, repeatable signal. I am assuming it must have been on edge, else it would have rang out like a cow bell, and indeed a couple thick old nails came out of the same hole.
 

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